Polebridge and North Fork area

Today we went up to an area of the park that's not as busy it's a different entrance called the North Fork entrance up on the north side of the park. There is a little town called pole bridge right there by the entrance and that store called the Pole bridge mercantile which is pretty well known for its bear claws. It's a bit of a drive to get up to the area in the last 8 miles of it around a gravel Rd. That is not in the best shape. It's pretty much like a farm road. I think we were pretty lucky though as they were grading it as we were driving on it, so it was probably as smooth and pothole free as it ever is. Once we went through the entrance, we continued on even worse gravel roads to Bowman lake. This road had multiple blind curves, so it was really interesting to drive on. Luckily, we didn't see more than one other car on the road at the same time as us. Alvin lake is really nice it's very quiet and peaceful there, I was a little surprised to see as many people up there as we did, probably a couple of dozen. We did about a mile and 1/2 hike along the side of the lake and it was very nice and peaceful and quiet for the most part. We then just relaxed for a while on the lakeside looking at the scenery and taking it all in. This was a neat, more wild area of the park and I’m really glad we made the trek up there. On the way back we stopped at Pole bridge mercantile, and it was very much an old timey kind of general store place instead of a bear claw I got a huckleberry Danish of another kind which was also really good. We then drove back to our hotel and got our bikes so we could do a bike ride somewhere around Apgar. We started to bike the Fish Creek trail, but it turns out there's a very steep hill right at the beginning of this so-called trail. I couldn't get up the hill and almost died trying. I think the elevation had something to do with the fact that I could not get any breath. It was really bad, and I had to push my bike back to the car sucking wind the whole time. As we were driving into Apgar village to get dinner Deb thought it be a good idea for me to do her inhaler. But all that did was really kick up my heart rate to dangerous levels again. You went from about 1:05 to over 150 in about one minute. So that wasn't a good idea, and it was kind of scary there for a few seconds. Ah the memories we make on vacation. After I decided I wasn’t going to die we went to eat at Eddie's cafe right there in downtown Apgar Village, but the tables were disgusting and everything smelled like 3-month-old ketchup and mustard. So, we bailed on that place and went to Freda’s, which I think is run by Xanterra, instead. Papa was just OK but at least it was audible and we didn't have to worry about getting some kind of disease.